The UVic Writer's Guide

Evidence

With a good thesis and an outline, you know what you want to say and how you want to say it. Now
your essay needs the weight of evidence to support your thesis and convince your reader.

Evidence consists of specific examples or opinions of others which
support and illustrate your thesis. Try to give several examples
rather than just one. You want to make sure that there is sufficient
evidence for you to make a strong point; the evidence must also
be relevant, reliable, and representative.

Evidence comes from either primary or secondary sources. The primary source is the text on which you are commenting,
or documents that deal directly with your topic. Secondary sources
are opinions or interpretation of others on the topic (your essay
itself becomes a secondary source, should anyone wish to quote
it).

In literary essays especially, it is important that you have a good grasp
of the primary source and have formed your own opinion about it
before you turn to secondary sources. Although secondary sources
can help support your view, your instructor is still interested
in what you think about the work.

When To Use Secondary Sources

Not every assignment will require you to consult secondary sources.
In literature courses, some instructors prefer not to assign research
essays because they want you to come to your own conclusions about
the text. In this kind of essay, a careful rereading of the work
or works you are discussing will allow you to develop your ideas
more fully, in the way that formal research does for a research
essay. If you do consult secondary sources, be sure not to rely
too heavily on them. Use them to support your own view, rather
than adapting your view to suit your sources; avoid the trap of
the ńscissors and pasteî essay that simply collects opinions of
others and rearranges them.

Some more traps to avoid when citing secondary sources:

Appealing to an authority outside of her or his field (do not,
for example, quote a literary critic on the effectiveness of vitamin
C).

Misrepresenting the opinions of the authority.

Assuming that one quotation in a source is typical of the whole.

Citing an authority which has lost authority--check the validity
of your authority and make sure the information is up to date
(do not quote Ptolemy in a paper on astronomy).

The type of secondary sources you seek out will depend on the
assignment. Secondary sources can include biographical material,
factual material, definitions, studies, commentaries, criticism„virtually
anything you consult outside the original material itself.

One problem writers come up against when completing research assignments
is how to use secondary sources and still write something new.
You might try judging or challenging old ideas, or concentrating
on a controversy between sources. Use secondary sources to show
that you know what has been said and give your opinion about it.
Research is not a substitute for your own careful thought and
analysis. (There are some further suggestions on the use of quotations
from primary and secondary sources in the section on ńQuotations
and Works Citedî below.)